While total U.S. charitable giving in 2023 increased by 1.9 percent to $557.16 billion in current dollars, when adjusted for inflation, giving effectively declined by 2.1 percent, an annual report from Giving USA finds.

Produced by the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the report, Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023, found that giving from individuals, bequests, foundations, and corporations did not outpace the higher-than-average (4.1 percent) inflation rate. All four sources of giving in 2023 grew in current dollars but remained flat or declined when adjusted for inflation, including individuals (2.4 percent), foundations (2.3 percent), bequests (.6 percent), and corporations (1.1 percent).

According to the report, when measured in current dollars, giving grew in all nine categories of nonprofits that receive charitable contributions, the top three being religion ($145.81 billion), human services ($88.84 billion), and education ($87.69 billion). When adjusted for inflation, only seven showed an increase: foundations (10.8 percent); public-society benefit (7.2 percent); education (6.7 percent); arts, culture, and humanities (6.6 percent); health (4.4 percent); environment and animals (3.9 percent); and human services (1.7 percent); while religion and international affairs both declined (1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively).

“Among the recipients of giving, we see the strongest growth among grantmaking organizations: giving to foundations and to public-society benefit organizations that include national donor-advised funds,” said Wendy McGrady, vice chair of Giving USA Foundation vice chair and executive vice president and COO of the Curtis Group. “Giving to these areas is also well above pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the wealthy donors who tend to give to grantmaking organizations continue to invest in the future of the nonprofit sector.

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